Chapter 361
Side Story – Memories of an Imperial Princess (77)
Princess POV
BOOM!
The sound of the world twisting began to echo.
“What is this……”
Even though it was far from Fort Pesra, the ground was shaking.
“Just how much did they detonate?”
I heard they were going to blow up Fort Pesra, but I didn’t know it would be to this extent.
“Your Highness, art is explosion.”
“Shouldn’t art have its limits?”
“The bigger the art, the better, Your Highness.”
“Even big things should have limits……”
It was quite a spectacle. Even the few commanders who knew about this operation, not to mention the soldiers who didn’t know about it, were standing with their mouths wide open, staring blankly at Fort Pesra.
“The dwarves did this?”
I knew that dwarves had come for the repair work on Fort Pesra.
I remember hearing that quite a bit of additional costs were added to the construction. But it wasn’t enough money to blow up an entire castle.
“Can they generate that much firepower with that amount?”
There was only one reason why dwarves cooperated with human countries. Money. It was to make money.
Unlike humans who make weapons for war and to fight against others, they were a race whose destiny was to create. That was what dwarves were, and they needed ores as materials for blacksmithing to create.
Dwarves, who are inherently craftsmen and miners, mine ores for self-sufficiency and make weapons.
However, ore is a limited resource. No matter how much ore a mine has, it’s bound to run dry over generations. Moreover, in areas where dwarves live as blacksmiths from birth to death, even the most abundant ore deposits would eventually be depleted.
When mines ran dry, they would move and settle, pioneer new villages where ore was abundant, and repeat until the ore ran dry again.
But limitations began to appear as time passed.
Although dwarves could focus on blacksmithing and go without eating for days, they couldn’t not eat as living beings.
They needed places not only rich in ore but also abundant in fruits or suitable for farming.
Places with both abundant food and ore, while not being territory of other races – there couldn’t be many such places.
With decreasing territory, the dwarves worried.
All clan elders gathered and discussed for days, but there was no solution.
When they were contemplating whether to give up their innate destiny as blacksmiths, humans – merchants who had the keenest nose for money – appeared and proposed a deal.
At first, the dwarves refused to use their work for profit, but the merchant’s conditions were more compelling than their pride.
Abundant ore and food!
For each iron sword sold, they received chunks of mithril that even dwarves found hard to obtain, and a well-made magic sword could bring in several months’ worth of food for a village.
That’s how dwarves got a taste for money.
Having tasted money, dwarves moved on to bigger markets. They began trading with nations. The repair of Fort Pesra was an extension of this.
While they repaired the castle faster and more perfectly than any craftsman, dwarves charged higher than any craftsman. This meant they weren’t the type to create such firepower at that price.
“Ah, about that?”
Ast nodded and answered my words.
“The amount for repairing and demolishing Fort Pesra is exactly what you saw, Your Highness.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
It was unbelievable, but it wouldn’t be a lie.
Which means,
“They got scammed……”
The dwarves must have been scammed.
Either they fell for Ast’s smooth talking, or perhaps they said gold coins verbally but wrote silver coins in the contract. Or maybe they were blackmailed into a fraudulent contract.
“You noticed.”
 “As expected……”
I let out a small sigh at Ast’s words.
But there was one thing I hadn’t considered,
“Yes. The documents Your Highness received were manipulated.”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“That amount was supposed to be paid monthly.”
The victim of the fraud wasn’t the dwarves but me, or rather, the Empire.
“Month? Month? Month?”
Month month month!
Saying it repeatedly made it sound like dog barking.
Perhaps because I’ve been hearing too much nonsense?
“Yes. The document stated that the amount should be paid monthly, but that sentence was secretly removed.”
“You’re… Joking, right?”
It wasn’t enough to cause problems for the imperial finances. But it was such a large sum that the Finance Department would complain about why it was so expensive.
To pay such an amount monthly?
“The dwarves haven’t requested payment yet?”
“The amount is monthly, but receiving it was set to once a year.”
“…With whom?”
“Between me and the dwarves.”
“……”
Bang!
Though massive explosions could be heard again from Fort Pesra, to my ears it sounded different. Like the sound of the imperial treasury being robbed!
“H-how much?”
It was shock after shock. It felt like facing darkness as black as pitch.
This human called Ast seemed endless no matter how much you dug.
“Which part are you asking about?”
“How long is the term?”
If someone else had said it, I would have taken it as a joke. But not Ast. The distant explosions and the collapsing Fort Pesra visible through magic proved his words were true.
“8 years.”
“Ha……”
It was getting laughable now.
8 years… 8 years!
“So we have to pay that amount nearly 100 times……”
Having to pay that amount every year for 8 years! And not just paying it outright, but calculating it monthly and paying a year’s worth!
“This is insane……”
It was such a large sum that it wouldn’t be wrong to call it an evil plot to bring down both the Kingdom of Merdea and the Imperial House of Karan.
“Can you handle the consequences?”
Even for Ast, this was too much. This time, even I couldn’t help with such an amount.
The Imperial House must pay that amount to maintain trust with the dwarves. But paying money is one thing, and someone had to take responsibility for causing massive damage to the Imperial House through fraud. Namely, the perpetrator himself, Ast!
“Consequences, Your Highness?”
“Yes. How will you repay that amount?”
It was an amount that couldn’t be repaid even working unpaid for the Imperial House for a lifetime.
What possessed him to cause such an incident?
“With the amount to be paid over 8 years, you could probably buy a small kingdom. What will you do?”
Ast, who had closed his mouth at my words, tilted his head. His expression showed he hadn’t expected this at all.
“Haven’t thought about it?”
“Yes, Your Highness. Why should we pay that?”
“Don’t casually include me in ‘we.’ This is entirely your responsibility.”
“Ah, is that so? Well, even if I did it. Why should I pay it?”
Ast raised his finger with an expression of genuine confusion.
“There are plenty of people over there who can pay instead, aren’t there?”
Ast’s finger pointed at the magic vision. Or more precisely, at Fort Pesra being spectacularly destroyed within it.
Ha……
“This isn’t just biting into flesh, you’re planning to boil even the bones.”
I thought you were planning to destroy them completely, but you intended to take their territory and extort their money too.
“Haven’t you heard of bone broth, bone broth?”
“No.”
“It’s food I often ate where I used to live, made by boiling cow bones for a long time. It becomes excellent cuisine with just salt seasoning.”
“So?”
“If even bones taste good when well-boiled, how delicious would the Kingdom of Merdea be?”
How delicious, you ask? As one of the continent’s foremost kingdoms, it would be very delicious indeed.
However, there was the drawback that you’d have to do very difficult things to taste it.
“Can you boil it down? If you can’t, your bones might dissolve while being boiled instead?”
“Such frightening words……”
Ast, who briefly frowned, let out a deep sigh and answered with a confident voice.
“Well, it’s not impossible.”
“You seem to have something you believe in.”
“Yes, Your Highness. Because we have the greatest commander, General Religieus Lu Raisha.”
“…Would he have survived that kind of explosion?”
Half of Fort Pesra’s sturdy walls had collapsed, and the rest looked like they would collapse soon.
Could Duke Raisha survive in such an explosion? He couldn’t even participate in the war due to simple overeating?
“The reason I showed my appearance through video magic was to get Duke Raisha to climb up the castle walls. The front of the castle gate, that is, the part where commanders climb up, was designed not to collapse.”
“Is that even possible?”
“It’s possible with money and dwarven skill.”
“…So it’s worth the money.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
When that amount came to mind again, it felt like everything went dark.
“Sigh… So what’s the plan from here?”
“Once the castle walls completely collapse, we plan to take down the surviving enemies.”
“What about Duke Raisha?”
“I plan to push him as much as possible, but intend to keep him alive until the end.”
“Why? Wasn’t it all over now?”
“No, Your Highness. Honestly, if we planned to end the war by just blowing up one castle, why would we have made Duke Raisha the Grand General? We could have just pushed through with magical bombardment from the beginning.”
“That’s true.”
There was talk internally about whether this much was necessary, suggesting to just push through with magical bombardment.
“So you had something in mind.”
“Yes, Your Highness. Would a great commander be called great for nothing? A true great commander should be able to win even in unfavorable situations.”
How to handle moments of crisis – Ast, who said this was the difference between a great commander and an ordinary general, began to show a very wicked smile.
“Isn’t it exciting? How excellently will a great commander like Duke Raisha command in this situation!”
“Lord Ast…”
Ria, who had been blankly watching the collapsing Fort Pesra and listening to Ast’s nonsense, called Ast’s name while trembling.
“Just how far have you thought this through?”
Ria, the Empire’s youngest Swordmaster and a knight who knew no fear, was trembling in fear.
Because of strategies that seemed to look several moves ahead, almost like precognition?
No. Ria wasn’t smart enough to think about such difficult things.
Instinct. Ria was instinctively sensing it. The things Ast would do! What would happen to the Kingdom of Merdea! Trembling in fear while imagining how terribly the Merdean Kingdom’s army would be destroyed, to the point of feeling pity despite them being enemies!
“I won’t do anything.”
Looking at such a Ria, Ast smiled as if to reassure.
“Is, is that so?”
Such a gentle smile. It was such a clear and clean smile that someone seeing it for the first time might think he was a pacifist.
However,
“Just how far are you planning to go…”
The old master of swords, known as the Sky of Swords, once said that everything looks the same when it reaches its extreme. Even things that seem completely opposite, like black and white, can become the same at their peak.
In the past, I couldn’t understand what that meant. But now I could understand.
Ast’s smile doesn’t appear pure because there’s truly no pure intent behind it. It appears pure because it’s so evil, because it’s an evil that has transcended limits.
Pure evil! Though the words didn’t match at all, there probably weren’t any words more fitting to describe Ast’s smile!
“Yes, Sir Ria. I don’t need to do anything. Everything is already… Over, so what more could I do?”
“What?”
As if confirming my thoughts, Ast maintained his pure smile while beginning to make demonic statements.
“I created a crisis. And in crisis, people tend to show their true nature.”
“Is, is that so?”
“Yes, Sir Ria. Duke Raisha was trash even normally. I wonder what will happen when he shows his true nature in this situation…”
“Um… He’ll fail, right?”
“No. He will demonstrate excellent command.”
“What?”
To Ria, who couldn’t understand what this meant, Ast revealed the meaning of his words.
“Please enjoy watching the commanding abilities of Grand General Raisha, who will demonstrate perfect command as the Honorary Grand General of the Karan Empire!”
Nonsense that ordinary people could never understand even after being told!
